Last weekend.

August 10th and 11th was my last weekend in Washington and it was a pretty good one!

August 10th, Saturday, Erin and I went to the Newseum. The Newseum is a museum based around news, so television, radio and newspapers. It's one of the only museums in DC that you have to pay for and it was quite expensive! However, the ticket was good for two days, but Erin and I finished it all Saturday. We got to the Museum at 10 and were there until 4:45. The museum was pretty interesting, but it wasn't my favorite and I probably won't go back unless they have a special exhibit I want to see. The special exhibit they have on now is based around JFK and his family while he was president. It was an okay exhibit, but neither Erin or I wanted to see two and a half floors of pictures and read about his story. By the way this museum is HUGE! It's six stories and has a basement making seven! Anyway, one whole floor was devoted to interactives, like games and the opportunity to be a news person. My favorite part of the museum was the room where they had a bunch of old newspapers. The newspapers spanned from earth 16th Century to 2005 I think. Some of them were really cool! There was the first bilingual paper, which was the Gazette in Montreal, a Moon Hoax where someone claimed in the 17th century that they saw giant flying birds on the Moon. There was a notice in a paper that the King had lost his dog and there was an award. There was an article and a cartoon on Jack the Ripper and so much more! It was definitely my favorite part! For lunch Erin and I went to the museum's cafe. The only reason I mention this is because I had a really tasty cupcake there! It was a vanilla almost cornbread like cupcake which peanut butter on top and then it had jam in the middle! It was so tasty! It wasn't sweet at all and tasted like a peanut butter and jam sandwich, which makes sense since both were on the cupcake.

Sunday was Lynn's choice! Erin and I met up at 10am at the Adams Morgan Metro and headed out for brunch. We ended up at this place called The Diner. I had bread pudding french toast! It was quite delicious, but really filling and I didn't really feel like eating for the rest of the day. After brunch we got back on the Metro and headed out to Old Alexandria. It's so pretty out there! There's so many cool little shops and museums and everything looks so quaint and old. We walked down King Street popping in and out of some of the shops. I mostly just looked because I'm not really a shopper, but Erin kept admiring all of the jewelry. Even I have to admit some of it was pretty interesting. There were rings that had 2000 year old Roman glass in them that I thought were so pretty that I would probably where them! That's saying a lot coming from me since the only accessory I normally have is a pocket watch. Although, I guess what I like makes sense with my personality. I am a history major so it only makes sense that I would flock to the older stuff. Erin and I stopped in this Apothecary Museum on King Street. It was very interesting! The apothecary was established in 1797, I think, and lasted until 1933. All the stuff in there was from the apothecary. The only way to look around inside was to get a tour, so we did. It was really interesting to learn about this places history and what certain herbs, medical stuff and non-medical things were used for. After that we continued down the street. We eventually got to the water and the Old Torpedo Factory Art Center. This Torpedo Factory has been transformed into an art center. Artists not only sell their art here, but they also have their studios here. It was a really neat idea to transform something that used to be destructive into something that augmented the community. It is three stories tall and has every kind of art that you can imagine inside! After wandering around Erin and I stopped at Pop's old fashion ice cream for a snack. Erin got a really pink strawberry floats which was pink/red pop with strawberry ice cream. She said it was really sugary and very pink! I had something called a Broadway Soda. It is coffee ice cream blended with carbonated water and chocolate syrup. It sounds gross  but it actually was pretty tasty! After our snacks we wandered around a bit more before hopping on the free trolley outside the Torpedo Factory and taking it back to the Metro. It would have been nice to have had more time in Old Alexandria. I wish I would have been able to go on one of their ghost walking tours they have at night. However, it was a great day and a great last weekend!

Second last week of work!

I've had a busy week, but it was also quite depressing because it was the last week for the rest of the interns! Monday I went to work all dressed up for the final fancy Monday. We didn't have our intern brown bag lunch, but at 3:30 all of space history met on the patio and we had snacks and an intern farewell. That morning I had done work for Valerie and in the afternoon I finally started my internship for David with two weeks left. We'll have to see how that goes! After work I went grocery shopping and then headed home to get my stuff ready for the outdoor movie Erin and I were going to that evening. Erin and I met up at 8:00 to go to movie on the Mall. It's an outdoor movie night that they set up right in front of the Smithsonian Castle. That night they were showing the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It was fun! There was some weird things Erin and I didn't understand. Like why people started clapping during random parts of the film. However, we had a great time and sang along to all the songs. Well we kind of mumbled along to them, but we tried and we had spirit and that's all that matters!

Tuesday was a normal day at work. I stayed a bit later because I felt like I had a lot of work to do. At lunch we finished watching The Day the Earth Stood Still. We all got really into it and at one point I noticed strings holding one of the actresses and pointed it out. My supervisor David said "WHAT?" and we had to rewind the movie so he could see them. I guess he's watched that movie hundreds of times and never seen the strings, so I felt pretty proud of myself! After my late stay at work  bunch of us interns went to Kelly's for a drink and food. That was my Tuesday, not to exciting.

Wednesday on the other hand was more exciting! I went to work like any other day and I had finished the work Valerie had given me so I started on my work for the following week. I got a fair amount of it done, but not all. I still worked on it Thursday and Friday and I have about an hour and a half of work left to do this week. After work Wednesday Erin and I went to the Corcoran Museum of Art. It was half off Wednesday, so tickets were half off along with alcohol. Erin and I each had a glass of wine which made all of the art so much more interesting! We looked at some modern art and then proceeded to look at war photographs which quickly sobered me up because they were so depressing. The photos were really nice/moving/gave me nightmares, but I didn't like how they organized the exhibit. They did it by theme which works I guess, but what I didn't like was how there were Second World War photographs next to Iraq photos which were next to Korean War photos. It just became over whelming after a while and I didn't really get the sense of a continuity of a story because of the abrupt changes. The other special exhibit was more happy and I really enjoyed. I was a bunch of postcards plastered on the wall with little symbols above each one representing what the structure in postcard looked like. The exhibit then went on to describe what aliens would think if they came to our Earth and there were no people and all they had to go on was our architecture. This exhibit really focused on pillars and Greek/Roman inspired structures. The exhibit called humans the pillar-builders and said that we probably weren't that smart and didn't evolve that much because most of our architecture looks the same. Finally, Erin and I took a tour around the Art Museum. It was interesting, but there wasn't anything that memorable.  

Work Thursday was again uneventful. I spent the day emailing the New York Times and filling out more Crew and Mission Boxes for Valerie's book. After work some of us interns went over to the Natural History Museum and saw Flying Monsters. It was about flying dinosaurs, pterosaurs. However when the theater first went dark this thing about monarch butterflies appeared on the screen. Us interns began looking at our tickets making sure that we got the right show. Right when we were going to start to rebel "Now in Theaters" flashes across the screen and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. I hear that the monarch butterfly show is good, but it wasn't what any of us wanted at that time. However, Flying Monsters wasn't that satisfying either. There was a focus on pterosaurs and how they evolved. The film never mentioned pterodactyls! We were all disappointed by that! Following that we had supper at Hard Rock Cafe, very intern friendly and then headed our separate ways. 

Friday was the last day for the rest of the interns, so it wasn't that productive. At one point the intern in the cubicle beside me was throwing paper balls over the wall at me and Brigid who was on the other side of him. It became an all out war and Brigid and I even planned one final ball attack, but it was cancelled because we felt guilty for not doing as much work as we normally did. I did end up almost finishing my project for Valerie and I did some tiding up. Before I left for the day Valerie and I had a heart to heart. I know it wasn't my last day, but the next day she was headed off to Australia, so it was the last time I was going to see her. I truly hope that I get to see Valerie again. She really inspired me to pursue my dreams, even if I am confused about how I want to reach them and what I want to study exactly. I learned a lot from Valerie this summer about not being afraid to try new things, to not be afraid to ask questions and to well, just not be afraid and follow your passion. If you love what you do and if you think/know that you have the best job in the World you have found the perfect spot for you. That's my goal. To think that I have the best job in the World. I know that it be along time and a lot of jobs before I get there and there's the possibility that I never will, but I will keep on trying and not give up! Friday night Erin and I had planned on going to Arlington Cemetery, but everyone at work told me that it was going to storm really badly that afternoon/evening, so we changed plans and returned to the Portrait Gallery and finished the first floor. In the end it didn't rain at all! 

That was my second last week!  

Part three: Must do everything starting this weekend!

This weekend Erin and I realized that I only had two weekends left before I leave. So we planned out the next two weeks so that we're doing something every night. I'm going to be so tired by the time I get home! Saturday we got off to a slow start because we had both stayed out late the night before. We met up at the National Archives at 11am and stood in line for about 45 minutes in order to get inside the building. We both thought that the only things inside that you could really see were the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Deceleration of Independence, but there are a lot more exhibits. We both agreed that our favorite exhibit was the one that had pictures taken in the '70's. These pictures reflected how different societies in the states viewed nature at that time. The pieces of paper were pretty cool, but they were so faded that I would be surprised if they are kept on display for much longer. They also had a copy of the Magna Carter which I thought was a little odd, but still interesting. After Erin and I went souvenir shopping for her family and then returned to my place to drop things off before heading out to buy groceries for Nanaimo bars and salad. I was forced to make Nanaimo bars because my fellow interns at work threatened to beat me up if I didn't! On our way to the grocery store we stopped at We the Pizza and each got a cream soda to drink on our walk. It started drizzling on our way over and after we got the groceries it was still raining. We were lucky that it didn't rain harder because we had both left our umbrellas at my house. We spent the evening making Nanaimo bars, eating salad and pasta, listening to music and chatting. It was nice to have a kind of relaxing day after the chaos that has been this summer.

The next day, today/Sunday August 4th, Erin and I met up again, but this time at 10:30 outside of Ford's Theater. We got entry tickets for 11 am and waited around until we were let inside. First they let us into a small museum related mostly to Lincoln's life and presidency. There was a bit about the assassination, but it was hidden in a corner almost out of embarrassment. I was way to crowed down there and we had to wait almost 45 minutes before they even let us into the theater. Erin and I just thought it would be the theater, so we were both surprised by the museum. When we got into the theater we were told to sit down in the audience and a ranger told us about the assassination plot and what happened at the theater. Our ranger was very awkward. You could tell that this wasn't his favorite part of the job. He kept making weird hand motions and had really long pauses in his speech. I didn't learn that much from what he said, but it was an experience to sit in the theater where a president was shot! We were done with the theater about 12:30 and we decided to try a new place for lunch called Pi pizzeria. It was pretty good. We shared a Lincoln Park pizza which had mozzarella, basil, tomato and zucchini on it with an olive oil sauce. Following lunch we went to the National Museum for Women in the Arts. It wasn't that big and we were done it by four. The first two floors mostly had portraits female artists had done before the 19th Century. That might have been my favorite part. The next two floors had more modern art, which was still interesting, but I found most of it either confusing or quite depressing. It was still an interesting museum because it only contained art done by females which was something I'd never experienced before. After that we parted ways and I came home and had an two hour nap and for some reason I'm still tired! I think it's because I'm thinking of all the other things I still want to do before I head home!

Part three: Drinking Day, Portrait Gallery, Laundry Day, Mama Casey

Tuesday was an eventful day. I spent my day doing TMS work and imputing data. At lunch we began to watch The Day the Earth Stood Still. After work I went out and socialized and networked with some curators. When us four interns got to Kelly's the pub we sat inside at a table and saved spots for the curators. Only one curator, David, came and sat with us. However, it was a lot of fun and he gave us a fair amount of tips and things to research. I learned that I should by a book called Mapping Mars, that if I want to study/work with Medieval Astronomy I should look into Oxford and at Holland. I figured out that maybe it wouldn't be the best to pursue and Master's in Museum Studies. It might be better to do a Master's in History. It really confused me. Now I don't know what I want to do! If I do a MA what do I write my thesis on? Medieval Scottish history? British Empire/Commonwealth and their exhibitions? Medieval Astronomy? I'm now more confused then ever!

Wednesday I went to work and my supervisor and I went and picked up more files of boxes for me to go through. The rest of my work day was spent finishing up my other set of boxes and then starting my new ones. For lunch I went out to the food trucks and I bought a grilled cheese that had mozzarella , basil, tomato and balsamic vinegar on it along with a sweet lemonade to drink. It was delicious and I'll definitely be making that at home! After work I met up with Erin and we headed over to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. That place is humongous! It's actually two museums in the same building, but still! The other museum in that building is the Smithsonian American Museum of Art.We spent and hour and a half in there and only got through half of the first floor! We're definitely going back there multiple times after work in order to attempt to finish the Museums. After we were both craving french fries so we went across the street to the Shake Shack and got regular fries and cheese fries to share. We also each got a blueberry lemonade which was tasty and I'm going to try to learn how to make that! The cheese fries were a little odd and Erin and I both agreed we felt a little ill after eating them.

Thursday wasn't every exciting. I spent my day at work going through boxes of files. I got through one and a half boxes by the end of the day.That night I went back to my living quarters and did three loads of laundry! I had to pretty much wash all my clothes! It also took so many loads because we have a small washer and dryer here.

Friday I went through two more boxes. Both Brigid and I got really bored part way through the day so we decided to make a card for Mama Casey, Daniel's mom (a fellow space history intern), because she was having us over for supper that evening. We also made a card for the Space History Department. We didn't have any of the necessities in our offices, so we snuck down to the Education Department and borrowed some paper, pencil crayons and come paper shaped like space objects. We felt very sneaky and stealthy even though we weren't. We ended up making what we thought we awesome cards. When we gave Mama Casey her's she really liked it. We headed over to Daniel's house after work. Daniel, Brigid, Owen and I met up with Brian at the last stop on the orange Metro line, Vienna, and we got a lift to Daniel's house with his father. Lucy and Chelsey, who are other interns from different departments, then joined us at Daniel's house. I ate so much that night that I wasn't hungry the next morning! Mama Casey had made us seven layer dip and guacamole for appetizers. For supper we had fajitas and salad. Then for desert we had homemade ice cream cake and s'more bars. I was on such a sugar rush after! After supper we all headed into Daniel's basement and chatted until 11:30pm. We finally headed out because it was decided that if they didn't get me on the Metro soon I was not going to get home safely I was so sleepy and I had crashed so hard after my sugar rush. It was so bad that they made sure someone was going in the same direction as me so that I would get off at the correct stop. However there was no need to worry! The sugar rush re-surged just long enough for me to return home! I finally got to sleep about 2am and I didn't get up Saturday until about 9:30 I was so tired.  

Part two: Weekend with my Mom!

Friday my Mom came down for the weekend! She was supposed to get in at 3:37, so I left work early to go meet her. However, I still had to do a lot at work before I left. Friday was also Mars Day. From 10 to 3 everything at the museum had to do with Mars. Us Space History interns had been volunteered to work shifts. My shift was from 11:30am to 1pm. I had to hand out 3D glasses along with two of my fellow interns Jaleel and Marcus. It was fun because it was a change from the normal routine, but by the end I was exhausted from acting happy for so long and my face hurt from holding a smile. However, it was worth the pain because we got some awesome red polo t-shirts that say Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Mars Day on them and the following Monday the gave us chocolate! It was worth it for other reasons, but nothing beat the shirt I got! The three of us were handing out 3D glasses so that the public could look at images of Mars. With the glasses they could see the mountains and the valleys. I only got to see a bit as we were cleaning up, but it looked interesting and some of the public was getting so into it that they were pushing the pictures over. After my shift I got cornered by a fellow intern while I was trying to leave to get lunch. By the time she was done talking to me I just grabbed my stuff and left. I stopped for lunch and then got on the Metro to go to the airport to pickup my mom! My mom's flight was almost 40 minutes late getting in and I had gotten there early, so I stopped for coffee and read my book as I waited. I was so happy to see my mom! I could barely contain myself when I saw her! I'm not very good at describing my feelings, so just understand that I was overjoyed! We went to her hotel and then headed over to We the Pizza for supper. I made my mom get the spinach and artichoke pizza along with an old fashion Italian cream soda. She loved it! At least that's what she told me, but who knows. Moms say and do stuff in order to make their kids happy. After our yummy supper we grabbed some clothes and souvenirs I wanted my mom to take home with her and we headed back to the hotel for the evening.

Saturday was a day so packed with fun and awesomeness that my left foot started to bleed because we were walking so much and I've already worn out my new pair of shoes. We started off the day by going and getting crepes at Point Chaud Cafe and Creperie. I've been there multiple times and every time it's delicious! After we walked over to Union Station and bought tickets for a 12:30 ride on the Duck boat. That gave us just over two hours to go to the Eastern Market, grab lunch and come back. We hustled over to the Eastern Market and wandered around. We bought my brother even more souvenirs if that's possible, but they were pretty cool. When we were done wandering we realized that we weren't that hungry, but we were quite thirsty because of the heat. I suggested we stop in at City Java for an iced drink thing. It was my mom's second cup of caffeine that day and she was wired! Well, it wasn't to bad. She just had a bit of a headache. With wandered back to Union Station with our drinks to catch the Duck boat. The Duck boat tour was so much fun! It took about an hour and  half and they did actually take us into the water with the boat! The tour guide was fun and told us facts that I didn't already know which was nice! After the boat tour we stopped and got frozen yogurt in a corn and started marching over to the National Botanical Gardens. Our yogurt started melting all over our hands and soon we both were a big mess! Luckily on our way to the gardens we spotted a drinking fountain that we could wash our hands in. We got to the gardens a bit before 3pm. We wandered around outside until my friend Erin showed up at three. The three of us wandered through the garden. We saw the now dead corpse flower and a lot of other plants that I don't know the names of! At one point we went into the outside garden and there was a hummingbird. I think it's the first time I've seen one in real life. I was so cool! I got a pretty good picture of it which I'll put below. After the gardens we went over to Merzi for supper. We were going to have a picnic, but it looked like it was going to rain, so we ate inside. That was a great decision! It started to pour so hard! It looked like a typhoon was happening outside! Luckily by the time we were done eating it was only sprinkling. The weather in Washington really confuses me sometimes. After supper Erin left us and my mom and I headed back to the hotel to watch cute dog videos on the Animal Channel for the evening.

Sunday started out the same as Saturday. My mom and I went for breakfast at the crepe place, but that's where the similarities ended! Well, not really. After breakfast we walked over to the Tidal Basin and went on the paddle boats for an hour. It was so much fun and a pretty good deal. It was 12$ for the two of us together for an hour. Anyway, we paddled around the basin. Those things can be so hard to paddle! Sometimes we didn't seem to have any momentum or our paddles weren't hitting anything because no matter how hard we tried we wouldn't moved! It was the most difficult trying to get back into the dock! We eventually had to make our way back by going at an angle towards the dock. If we tried to go straight on we would work really hard but go no where! It was really pretty out on the water and the weather was nice. It was a bit clouded and there was a breeze which helped us cool down while we were working our butts off to move the boat! I can't believe how much harder it would have been if there had been normal Washington weather. We probably would have keeled over from heat exhaustion! After paddle boating we started making our way to the National Geographic Museum. On our way we stopped for lunch and then an iced tea. We met my friend Erin again, but this time at 2pm. The National Geographic Museum isn't huge and you have to pay for it, but it was still interesting. They had an exhibit about real life pirates which was cool and an exhibit about the history of National Geographic. It took us about two and a half hours to get through the two exhibits. After the three of us walked back to the hotel to pick up some of my things that  had to take back to my place. We then headed to my place and then went out for supper. We ended up at Pain Quotidien for supper which was a nice light supper since none of us were that hungry. Following that Erin left my mom and I and the two of us again headed back to the hotel for the evening. 

 Monday was the day my mom left me. It was also her 49th birthday! I had the morning off so that morning we went somewhere different for breakfast. We went to Teaism which is a tea shop. Their chai tea was delicious and the breakfast food was pretty good, not the best and not the worst. After eating we went and hung out in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden for an hour. We just chatted which was the reason why my mom came down in the first place. About 11am we got on the Metro and I dropped my mom off at the airport. I was quite sad to see her go and I think I'm still depressed from being left behind. After leaving my mom at the security gate I headed over to the museum making it just in time for the farewell intern pizza lunch. They had a lunch at NASM to thank us interns for all of our hard work. Because of the lunch I didn't get to start working until 1:30. However, I did something really cool in the afternoon. I contacted the first Canadian woman astronaut in space, Roberta Bondar, and asked her if she would make a comment on the mission for the spread I'm writing. She got back to me in 45 minutes agreeing! I'm still waiting for the comment, but it's really cool to think that me, a normal 21 year old, had contact with an astronaut! My job gets more and more exciting everyday! I can't believe that it's going to end soon!